The young men, however, when they sat down to dinner in the captain’s cabin, and beheld a long table flanked with cushioned seats, commanded at each end by arm-chairs, the side-board plentifully garnished with plate and crystal of various kinds, fastened with copper nails to prevent damage from the ship’s pitching, they did not reflect that they were in the crater of a volcano, and that two paces from where they sat there was powder enough to blow the ship and all its crew up into the air.

They were likewise highly amused by the perpetual “guessing,” “calculating,” “reckoning,” and inexhaustible curiosity of the crew; but their admiration of the ship, her guns, her stores, and her tackle, were boundless; they felt that their pinnace was a mere toy in comparison.  The urbanity of the officers also was a source of much gratification to them; Jack even declared that all the civilization of Europe had been shipped on board the Hoboken, and in so far as that was concerned, they had no occasion to go on much further.

The object of this expedition, however, was a surgeon.  There was one on board.  Would he go to New Switzerland?  Jack determined to try, and accordingly he walked straight off to the personage in question.

“Doctor,” said he, “would you do myself and my brother a great favor?”

“Certainly; and, if it is in my power, you may consider it done.”

“Well, will you embark with us for New Switzerland?”

“For what purpose, my friend?”

“My mother is laboring under a malady, which there is every reason to fear is cancer.”

“And suppose a fever was to break out in this ship whilst I am absent, what do you imagine is to become of the officers and crew?”

“There are no symptoms of disease on board; but my mother is dying.”

“You forget, young man, that disease may make its appearance at any moment.  There are many sons on board whose lives are as dear to their mothers as your mother’s is to you, and for every one of these lives I am officially accountable.”

Jack hung down his head and was silent.

“No, my good friend, it is impossible for me to grant such a request; but, from what I know of your history, and the means at your command, you may be able to obtain the services of a competent medical man.  I would, therefore, recommend you to abandon your boat, and proceed with us to our destination.”

After a lengthy consultation, the two brothers and Willis determined to adopt this course.  The cargo of the pinnace was accordingly transferred to the hold of the Hoboken.  A short summary of their history was written, corked up in a bottle, and fastened to the mast of the Mary, which was then cut adrift.  A tear gathered on the cheeks of the young men as they saw their old friend in adversity dropping slowly behind, and they did not withdraw their eyes from it till every vestige of its hull was lost in the shadows of the waters.